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1. mcc (mcc@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 06-Jan-2025 23:47:35 UTC mcc

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️

   @foone OK, you're the one person I know who might know about this—

   Is it possible to get a USB 5-inch floppy drive right now? If so, where? It's hard to search on Amazon because searching "5 inch floppy" gives you 3.5 inch floppy drives…

   We're trying to figure out the least painful way to run some software on a Compaq Portable III that works but will no longer talk to its hard drive.

   https://mastodon.social/@mcc/113783888319654999

   • Benjamin Sonntag-King (benjamin@piaille.fr)'s status on Monday, 06-Jan-2025 23:47:35 UTC Benjamin Sonntag-King

     in reply to

     • Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     @mcc @foone I never saw a 5" floppy to USB hardware, does not really make sense to me :)

     but I found some 5.25" floppy drive on ebay :
     like here https://www.ebay.com/itm/395347047184
     (no 5.25 drive found were cheap :/ )
     and some floppy to usb chip (only, no drive)
     https://aliexpress.com/item/1005002099113145.html
     and finding some cable/ribbon adapter to make the 5.25 drive work with that chip ...

     while going down that rabbit hole I found someone who did it :
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjd2jSHBw7E

     did it help?

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 06-Jan-2025 23:48:03 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     • Foone🏳️‍⚧️
     • Benjamin Sonntag-King

     @benjamin @mcc @foone Do *not* use those chips. Their features are extremely limited, and they might not end up doing what you want them to do. Get an open source drive controller, like a Greaseweazle.

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Jan-2025 00:47:33 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     • Foone🏳️‍⚧️
     • Benjamin Sonntag-King

     @benjamin @mcc @foone Speaking from experience - writing data to 5.25 floppies from a modern machine is sadly not a very straightforward process. At least not as straightforward as one would probably expect.

   • mcc (mcc@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Jan-2025 00:47:35 UTC mcc

     in reply to

     • Foone🏳️‍⚧️
     • Benjamin Sonntag-King

     @benjamin @foone The compaq has a functioning floppy. The problem is how we're going to WRITE data onto a floppy, to put in the Compaq

   • Benjamin Sonntag-King (benjamin@piaille.fr)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Jan-2025 00:47:35 UTC Benjamin Sonntag-King

     in reply to

     • Anatoly Shashkin💾
     • Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     @mcc @foone I'd follow @dosnostalgic idea of using Greaseweazle board to connect any 5.25 floppy drive via USB to be able to write image on the floppies

     hope you'll have fun doing it!

   • Benjamin Sonntag-King (benjamin@piaille.fr)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Jan-2025 00:47:37 UTC Benjamin Sonntag-King

     in reply to

     • Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     @mcc @foone
     Also you may have a better luck with a floppy emulator connected to the Compaq (not sure how that could be feasible though)

     someone seemed to have done it before ;)
     https://www.oldsilicon.com/compaq-portable-iii